If you go

LAKE FOREST – Area residents can meet with Orange County Transportation Authority project managers on April 23 to hear more about a plan to widen a stretch of I-5 south of the El Toro “Y.”

The open house at the El Toro Water District will offer information about the project and give residents a chance to ask questions about the proposal to add lanes to the freeway from El Toro Road to the 73 toll road.

According to transportation officials, approximately 358,000 motorists travel the I-5 daily between El Toro and the 73. A 2012 study by a consulting firm hired by OCTA projected a 25 percent spike in that traffic by 2045.

The project is intended to make driving conditions better for motorists on that stretch of roadway as its usage increases.

In 2013, a team of south Orange County officials and regional transportation authorities recommended moving forward with one of three proposals for the widening known as Alternative 2.

That option would add one lane in each direction from Avery Parkway to Alicia Parkway. It also would:

 Extend a second carpool lane from El Toro to Alicia;

 Add and extend auxiliary lanes;

 Realign and widen the Avery and La Paz Road interchanges and the roadways beneath them.

The proposal would require taking four commercial properties: a gas station in Laguna Niguel and one in Mission Viejo, a pool construction business in Lake Forest, and the former home of an auto repair and supply store in Mission Viejo.

Caltrans has final say on the proposal. That decision is expected later this spring, OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik said.

If approved, final design would begin in late 2014; construction in 2018.

Widening that stretch of the freeway, estimated to cost $472 million, would be funded by revenue from Measure M2, a countywide half-cent transportation sales tax.

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